President Trump faced a surprisingly tough interview on CNBC’s Squawk Box Tuesday morning, as host Joe Kernen, who has often praised the president in the past, grilled him on his ousting of the commissioner of the Bureau of Labor Statistics over his claims that the job numbers were “rigged. “

Hours after data showed cracks in the U.S. economy, President Trump said without evidence that Erika McEntarfer “rigged” the data “to make the Republicans, and ME, look bad.”

Donald Trump has fired the commissioner of the Bureau of Labor Statistics, Erika McEntarfer, today, accusing her of distorting employment numbers in some plot to set him up. The accusation came just hours after a new jobs report revealed a steep drop in hiring over the past three months.